SaaS marketing for healthcare software companies is uniquely challenging – but the right strategies can help. Healthcare software marketers have to contend with a long sales cycle, an industry that is heavily regulated and slow to change, multiple stakeholders and a demanding customer base. To market healthcare SaaS solutions effectively, you will need a long-term strategy that includes both inbound and outbound tactics, a strong understanding of your target market, and an agile, best-practice approach.
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Here are our 5 top techniques for SaaS marketing for healthcare software companies:
1) Content Marketing
Why: One of the biggest challenges for healthcare software marketers is the need to capture the attention of multiple stakeholders, and then retain that engagement over the long sales process. Content marketing is the ideal technique for healthcare SaaS businesses. By creating valuable content — thought-leadership articles, webinars, videos, and how-to guides — you can attract the attention of your target prospects.
Further, a strategic approach to content planning can enable you to attract different stakeholders (such as hospital administrators, doctors and financial managers) with targeted content for each group.
You can also create different types of content to engage with your prospects at each stage of the customer journey — from blog posts and videos for those that just want to browse to demo videos, product documentation, and webinars for those considering your product more seriously.
As a result, content marketing allows your company to address all the stakeholders involved in the healthcare software purchasing process and then retain their attention as they work towards the decision to buy.
How: Creating high-value content comes down to how well you know your target prospect. Resist the temptation to talk about your product, your business, or what makes you special. It’s far more effective to identify what interests your prospects most and what challenges they are struggling with. Then, create content that helps them solve those challenges or speaks to those interests.
You may want to handle this in-house, but in many cases, it will be more cost-effective and efficient to partner with a healthcare software digital marketing agency. If you do decide to bring in an agency, it is vital that you look for a company that understands both the healthcare industry and the SaaS space. The results you get from content marketing will only ever be as good as the content itself — and great content comes from expertise and a clear understanding of the target market.
2) Social Media
Why: As the old marketing saying goes, people buy from people, not from businesses. Even when it comes to technical products like healthcare SaaS solutions, the same rule applies. To successfully execute healthcare social media marketing for software companies, you need to make a human connection and build relationships with prospective buyers. Enter social media — the ideal way to build a brand that combines humanity with authority.
How: Social media has long been perceived as the exclusive territory of B2C marketing, but nothing could be further from the truth. The key is to think about the type of content that your audience will like, rather than being self-serving.
In other words, rather than restricting yourselves to content on healthcare software features and benefits, think about what your potential buyers would be most likely to read, connect with, and share. One tip: ask yourself if you’d read the content if you didn’t work for your company. If the answer’s yes, you’ve probably got the tone right!
3) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Why: In healthcare software, you don’t need us to tell you that you’re up against well-known brands with deep pockets. SEO can help you stand out in a crowded marketplace and get in front of your ideal clients. Companies that rank in the top 3 positions in a Google search get more web visitors, more leads, and more business. Just as importantly, top business ranking also establishes you in a position of trust and respectability — an absolute must in the high-stakes environment of health care software.
How: Step 1 to great SEO is great content. By great content, we mean content that is high-quality, provides value to the reader, and is extremely relevant to your target search engine users. It’s important to keep your content fresh and up to date — consider adapting your blog or video topics to align with current trends. Search-optimized content is also built around keywords, or the terms and phrases your ideal customers would be likely to type into a Google search bar.
Step 2 to boosting your SEO involves creating a solid user experience on your website by making your site easy to navigate, adding page descriptions and titles that include keywords, brushing up the content to make it clear and relevant, and polishing up the technical aspects like page load time and mobile optimization.
Step 3 is to build a strategy to promote your content and encourage backlinks to your website. Examples of this kind of public relationship effort include pitching for guest posts on respected industry websites, which will include a link to your website or blog or seeking partnerships and joint marketing efforts with relevant third parties (such as other software companies, universities, or competitions which you can sponsor).
It might be worth looking at an example of how effective SEO can be in the healthcare software space. We recently created an end-to-end marketing strategy for our client Prevounce, focusing on increasing organic traffic and growing their presence in their niche. After implementing the steps above, coupled with a deep analysis of their specific market niche and product, Prevounce saw a 2000% increase in demo requests and a 1600% increase in closed deals.
4) Email Marketing
Why: Email marketing is still one of the best ways to keep yourselves in the prospect’s mind over the long healthcare sales cycle, enabling you to build a relationship with your prospects by providing them with value even before they buy your software. Using email, you can target your leads at each stage of engagement, personalizing your marketing efforts depending on how they came across your business and how much they know about you.
How: Remember that we all get too many emails. Keep your emails informative, helpful, and short. If you can be entertaining, that’s even better. To build personalized email journeys, try using a marketing automation software like Hubspot. You can segment your email readers by everything from how many times they have downloaded your content to which channel they arrived from, and then send them an email series that best suits their interest level. To maximize your conversion rates, make sure you include a call to action in each email — whether that’s to download a demo, set up a sales consultancy call, or simply view a video on your website.
5) Client Marketing
Why: Customer retention is key for all industries, but it is especially vital for healthcare SaaS companies. In the words of Neil Patel, a leading marketing expert, “SaaS marketing is different from all other types of marketing…You’re going to want to focus more on customer retention than customer acquisition.” In other words, when you’re thinking of SaaS marketing for healthcare, you need to think as much about delighting your existing customers as you do about finding new ones.
How: A key aspect of retaining your healthcare software clients is to remind them of the value they’re getting from your software. This could be as simple as regular emails with tutorials on key features, or case studies breaking down customer success stories so they can be replicated by others. You could consider involving customers in your product development cycle, so they can see how responsive you are to their feedback and needs. Or create invitation-only groups on social media channels, through which you could share special offers, discounts, or free high-value user content, to make your customers feel like part of the in-crowd. Above all, make sure that you remain easily accessible, providing customer service that goes above and beyond.
Nobody can say that SaaS marketing for healthcare is easy, but with the right strategy, some best practice techniques, and an in-depth knowledge of the industry, you can stand head and shoulders above the crowd. If you’d like to find out more about how Spot On helps healthcare software companies reach their digital marketing goals, please feel free to set up a chat with us — we’d love to hear from you!
